OHIO CLOSING SCHOOLS

Ohio schools, faced with drastic budget cuts, are struggling to stay afloat. Cash-strapped Cincinnati is planning to completely eliminate seven schools next year, cramming their students into other existing schools by raising class sizes and using mobile classrooms. This will also eliminate as many as 600 teachers and staff, or more than 10 percent of the district's 5,800 employees. The National Priorities Project estimates underfunding for the administration's No Child Left Behind Actdirectly affected these budgets with a $225.7 million shortfall in grants to the Buckeye State for Title I (the program designed to improve educational outcomes for disadvantaged students) and an $8.8 million shortfall for programs to improve teacher quality. [more]